Studies have shown the more time that continues to pass, the more contribution to global warming there is. There are many contributions to our world’s global warming, but certain groups, and/or individuals have came up with ideas. Ideas that are intended to decrease greenhouse emissions, which results in global warming. Solar energy has been a method, or source of energy that has been discovered by Alexandre Edmond Becquerel during the 1830’s. He discovered how sun can be transmitted into energy by using the Photovoltaic effect. Photons are the particles that come from light, including the sun. In the past due to the lack of research and experimenting, the use of solar energy was very limited. It is not until now that solar panels have been created and actually used. When solar panels were actually being used, the only buildings that you would see solar panels being used were either company buildings or very wealthy households. Solar panels were very expensive, even today it is not affordable for the middle class. We do see a lot more solar panels on the roofs of homes today than in the past.
During class, me and my partner were involved in a lab activity that consisted of us measuring the voltage that was transmitted on to a mini solar panel based on the distance of the light, and the change of color. We began the lab by receiving the materials from our professor. We began by putting the battery into the NXT with light sensor causing it to turn on. Next, we plugged the adapter from the NXT with light sensor, into port 1. Then we connected the solar panel to the adapter (red wire to red, and black wire to black). We continued by plugging the NXT robot into the computer by using a USB cable. We had to plug the NXT robot to the computer so that the data the robot receives, it is transmitted onto the program LabView.
We began the lab by conducting five trials. For each trial, we changed the distance between the flashlight and the solar panel. We started with a distance of 0 centimeters, followed by 2 centimeters, 4 centimeters, 6 centimeters, and finally 8 centimeters. As the distance increased, the voltage from the light decreased. This is because the farther the flashlight, the less power of light that is coming in contact with the solar panel. Our final conclusions were computed and graphed/plotted on a chart which I will demonstrate later.
For our second part of the lab, we were supposed to keep the distance of the flashlight constant which we decided to leave it at 4 centimeters. The difference throughout this part of the lab was that for each trial, we changed the color of lens that we held in between the flashlight and the solar panel. We used the colors orange, light blue, purple, and dark blue. Each color made a difference to the amount of voltage that was transmitted onto the solar panel. Orange ended up being the color that transmitting the most voltage. Light blue and purple finished with around the same amount of voltage.
Above i have include the results in which we turned it into a graph and a chart to show the final outcomes after making changes for each trial.
Due to this lab, i have learned how light can be used as energy. There are many ways of creating energy and turning it into electricity. In the case of the lab, it is a low voltage because the flashlight is not equipped to conduct high voltage but its a great demonstration.